AN
ESSAY
ON
MUSICAL EXPRESSION
BY CHARLES AVISON
Organist in Newcastle
With Alterations and Large Additions
To which is added,
A LETTER to the AUTHOR
concerning the Music of the Ancients
and some Passages in Classic Writers
relating to the Subject.
likewise
Mr. AVISON'S REPLY to the Author of
Remarks on the Essay on Musical Expression
In a Letter from Mr. Avison to his Friend in London
THE THIRD EDITION
LONDON
Printed for LOCKYER DAVIS, in Holborn.
Printer to the Royal Society.
MDCCLXXV.
The author of the "Remarks on the Essay on Musical Expression" was the aforementioned Dr. W. Hayes, and although the learned doctor's pamphlet seems to have died a natural death, some idea of its strictures may be gained from Avison's reply. The criticisms are rather too technical to be[426] of interest to the general reader, but one is given here to show how gentlemanly a temper Mr. Avison possessed when he was under fire. His reply runs "His first critique, and, I think, his masterpiece, contains many circumstantial, but false and virulent remarks on the first allegro of these concertos, to which he supposes I would give the name of fugue. Be it just what he pleases to call it I shall not defend what the public is already in possession of, the public being the most proper judge. I shall only here observe, that our critic has wilfully, or ignorantly, confounded the terms fugue and imitation, which latter is by no means subject to the same laws with the former.
Handel
"Had I observed the method of answering the accidental subjects in this allegro, as laid down by our critic in his remarks, they must have produced most shocking effects; which, though this mechanic in music, would, perhaps, have approved, yet better judges might, in reality, have imagined I had known no other art than that of the spruzzarino." There is a nice independence about this that would indicate Mr. Avison to be at least an aspirant in the right direction in musical composition. His criticism of Handel, too, at a time when the world was divided between enthusiasm for[427] Handel and enthusiasm for Buononcini, shows a remarkably just and penetrating estimate of this great genius.